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Hi folks, I'm a long time searcher and a first time poster to this forum. Here is what I have currently experienced. Zonealarm free firewall will be abbreviated to ZAFF to save on word count haha.

I had to reinstall my parents system, thus meaning a clean install of ZAFF.

I installed the version I have on my PC, 10.1.101 I believe. The firewall would always indicate that the "internets at risk" (far right box on the UI). Trying to reinstall the above version caused the PC to crash for some reason on boot. I booted with ZAFF start-up applications turned off, appears Zonealarm was the issue. I therefore installed ZAFF 10.2.057, which worked fine asides from the "Internet at risk" (far right box on UI) being red.

I searched and tested the firewall and it appears that that section is just broken on some computer systems. That section is still running as when I visit my website (non malicious) it warns it is dangerous and when I download a file Zonealarm check for spyware and the Zonealarm download manager pops up even though I didn't install the browser add-on, it installs by default unless you turn internet security off.

So the Internet security does work, it just says it isn't and can be ignored. This hopefully puts some peoples souls to rest as I know there are countless threads on this issue.

Secondly, I am now receiving the following message at start-up and in a text block when rolling over the ZAFF icon in the taskbar: "Zonealarm Security Update Overdue". Now, having done some searching I have been able to find out that this is the anti-virus saying it hasn't been updated, BUT I haven't installed the anti-virus. This issue should occur with everybody who is running the 10.2.057 free firewall without the anti-virus so it can be ignored. This has been stated as a con on CNET and has been discussed on another forum that I'm not sure I'm allowed to link too?

Anyway, I would like to see these issues fixed, I'm not sure whether ZA staff looks at these forums but these notes might be worth forwarding to the development team for a future update on the software. I will continue to use the software, as I know that my computer is not at risk. I have been a user of ZAFF for nearly 6 years now, back to V4 I think.

For all purposes the computer having these issues is as follows:

Windows XP SP3
1GB RAM
ZA Free Firewall 10.2.057
Avast Anti-virus 7

Last edited by itype; June 24th, 2012 at 04:18 AM.
Reason: Title more clearly hinting to the issue for other readers

Re: Failed upated from ZA 10.1.XXX to new version of ZAfree

Hi!

and welcome! Sorry all users here ZA development does not monitor this board.

The problem you described is normally linked to corrupted/bad install of ZA. These are linked to ZA databases been corrupted, left overs locked by the system not been removed during the update, conflicts with other tools installed, installing ZA over a corrupted ZA, and so on. There can be very many causes for this.

To rectify the situation you should simply remove ZA from XP add/remove, run the ZA clean up tools, reinstall ZA while other tools are shutdown. This is actually already been suggested in a similar case here, follow the link for the detailed step-by-step procedure:

Re: Failed upated from ZA 10.1.XXX to new version of ZAfree

Sorry, I should have stated that I have already tried all the trouble shooting in the other threads and it has not corrected the issue. I even went as far as reinstalling the computer hours after I'd already completed a fresh install of XP. I believe it is an issue with the software and not my system as this error occurs every single time. I'm not really looking for a fix persay, just passing along my knowledge and research.

Re: Failed update from ZA 10.1.XXX to new version of ZAfree

Hi!

sorry to hear about your issues. ZA is at least fully tested and QA on standard installation. If you would have such problems on standard installations then you should see this section flooded by posts. That is not actually the case.

So, there is something on the system at your hand different from the most that impair the correct installation of ZA including your ZA 10.1 error that is not normal and does not happen on majority of users.

If you are interested in troubleshooting then you should try to isolate the issue by first reformatting the system and install a clean XP (not the ones provided by third party producers that often include proprietary add-ons and drivers), then update it to latest patches and security fixes and only then install ZA. Nothing else. Also note that ZA must be installed on real system since it does not support any virtual machines.

If you have still issues then there is no other explanation than an hardware incompatibility. At this point will be the time for you for looking to alternatives firewalls. Plenty of alternatives out there. 100% compatibility with all users setups is not really possible.

By the way, new version of ZAfree (10.2.064.000) is been dispatched via the 057 webinstaller at least for retail versions. You may want to try it always with a clean install (fully remove ZA before re-installing it). Considering your problem with previous versions I doubt this could fix it.

Closing this thread since all steps for troubleshooting have already been suggested and OP is posting this as an advise rather than for assistance.

Do not hesitate to PM me in case you find a solution to your issue so that I can reopen the thread. It may help other users with the same problem.